NBA: Cleveland sets Snuggie world record
Associated Press
CLEVELAND — Cleveland has its original world record covered.
Fans attending Friday’s game between the Cavaliers and Detroit Pistons set a world record for the largest gathering of people wearing fleece blankets.
All fans in attendance had a Snuggie placed on their seats prior to the game. During a timeout in the first quarter, fans were asked to wear the wine-colored blankets with arms for five minutes as a clock on the scoreboard counted down. Most everyone complied — except for one fan wearing a Celtics jersey and another who thought ahead and brought a Pistons Snuggie. The rest of the sellout crowd of more than 20,000 turned the Q into a sea of red blankets, counting down the final seconds and cheering as the world record clock expired.
An adjudicator from Guinness World Records attended the game to make the record official.
Danny Girton Jr., an adjudicator executive with Guinness World Records, said there was no existing record, so the records management team opened a new category for Friday’s event.
Girton said he was looking for four parameters in order for the record to become official: At least 250 people have to participate, they must all wear their own Snuggie, they need to wear it for five minutes and they all must be the same color.
All of the Cavaliers players were given their own personalized Snuggie. Shaquille O’Neal’s needed 9 feet of material — 2 to 3 feet more than a typical Snuggie for the 7-foot-1 O’Neal. Rookie Danny Green wore his Snuggie on the court for pregame shootaround.